Rick Allen

Congressman Rick W. Allen (R-GA-12) held a telephone town hall on Friday to answer questions from senior citizens who live in the 12^th district of Georgia. Congressman Allen released the following statement today:

“Last Friday, I was able to connect with thousands of seniors from across the 12^th district of Georgia on a telephone town hall. It was a pleasure to be able to give them an update on my work in Washington and to hear their questions. I was also able to ask poll questions to get a pulse of the district, and a snapshot of how people in the 12^th district feel about important issues facing the nation. The feedback I received is extremely helpful to me and my staff in order to better serve everyone in Georgia-12. Thank you to everyone who participated!”

For those who were unable to participate in the call, here are some of the highlights:

William from Jenkins County asked if Congressman Allen supported Trump vigorously

Congressman Allen: “Yes, sir…. The people spoke last November and said we want to change; we want to change the direction of this country- that’s why I ran for office. The President is a business man, I’m a business man and I think he ran for the same reason. Because obviously he has children and grandchildren and if we don’t change, we are on an unsustainable path in this country and we have to change it.

“I will tell you this, I am working very hard. About a year ago we released what we call the Better Way, the President has endorsed that fully, tax reform which we already talked about is part of that…”

Michelle from Hazlehurst asked what Congress is doing to support the role of local communities in Education:

Congressman Allen: “Well let me just tell you, what we did, in fact we did in the 114th Congress is, we passed the greatest reform. Newt Gingrich said it was the greatest reform in 25 years in education; in fact I was with our state school superintendent just a week or so ago in Atlanta and talked about what we’re doing. We repealed No Child Left Behind, which was a compliance nightmare for our teachers. We are block granting education funds from the federal government to the states, giving the states full control of our education system, states and local boards of education. We think that’s the best way to fix our education process…

“There are two big disconnects out there, one is young people really don’t know why they’re getting an education, and secondly the business community really hasn’t connected with the education community to inform young people of the opportunities available to them. We’ve got to do a better job of that.

“We’ve got a lot of people out of work; we’ve got young people looking for opportunities. There are going to be more opportunities as this economy responds to everything we’re doing and the economy begins to grow. And yes, we have got to ramp up our education and get it to the 21st century….”

Harry from Evans asked Congressman Allen his thoughts on modernizing and simplifying the tax code:

Congressman Allen:  “Yes sir and I agree with you 100%. …We’re going through drafting the legislation and what not, but again it’s a timing issue and you know up here everything is procedural. I’d like to snap my fingers - in fact if you put me in charge for a day, we’d get this done, but it doesn’t exactly work like that.

“We’d like to get the budget behind us, and if we can get that behind us … we’ll be totally committed to tax reform and that will give us ample time to get that done.”

Sonia from Baxley asked for more information on Trump’s budget and how it affects the national debt:

Congressman Allen: “Well that is a very complicated question. Let me tell you what we are doing. If we can get health care reform done and if we can get tax reform done, we are going to lower the deficit. 

“President Trump is committed to getting folks back to work in this country; I’m committed to getting people back to work in this country. If we accomplish that, we will balance the budget and begin to pay off the debt which is crucial to the future of this country.”

If you would like to sign up for the next telephone town hall, please sign up here. If you would like to learn more about the work Congressman Allen is doing in Washington, please sign up for his weekly e-newsletter here.

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